Grown Ocean
The skies were a pale, worn out green. Despite the discolorment of the world, Arthur begged for the sun to burn holes through him. He sat, disenchanted and cold, while the stars remained twinkling white flowers in this sky garden.
He watched the other soldiers as they escorted the remaining few onto space shuttles, their misery only growing as they shuffled on. Arthur let out a low hiss, as he dropped his cigarette onto the dirt. The sun peaked behind the clouds, a cosmic shine blocking his view for a few seconds, as it billowed and waved to him from above.
Arthur loosened his uniform, the heat thickening as he thought vaguely on where he left his cigarettes. He watched as the others checked returned from their last calls, returning with almost no remaining inhabitants.
Earth was empty. All of Asia was damned to hell, though many were saved in the ruins. North America was the first to be infected and destroyed, and Europe was the only safe area left; though it would hardly be the case in a matter of months.
Earth was only a memory, now. Deterioration was their reality.
Alfred forced himself to float in the near-white sea; he placed his hand over the water (not quite touching it, but floating in the dense air above it) and looked at the reflection, and he felt like he was in a bubble. The water enveloped him in a colorless, emotionless embrace.
He opened them, moments later, as the final buildings crumbled behind them. He wanted to laugh, watching the last of Earth's largest monuments in Europe destroy. He swam to the shore, kissing his hand and touching the water for his last time with his palm.
Alfred ducked behind a large rock suddenly, as a shot rung out in the acescent air. Alfred felt the water reach his ears as he tried to sink lower, but he let out a soft giggle at the touch. He heard another shot, and the splashing of water as someone waded in.
"Do you want to play with me?" Alfred asked, the curiosity in his voice tinged with something darker, as he stepped out.
"Y-you shouldn't be here; the earth isn't for us anymore. How did you get here?" Arthur's words left his mouth, but the rest of his thoughts were held.
(Wicked, wicked, the whole world was wretched, why would anyone want to stay?)
A breathless smile. His voice is a shaky tremor of stardust wishes and drying dewdrops, soft but hoarse, and Arthur steps back in fear, clutching his gun against his thigh-
"Where did it all go wrong, exactly?" Alfred whispers.
He sunk into the water again, reaching his caliginous blue eyes. His nose, a blush pink, is the same as his cheeks. His long fingers reach out and hold nothing, nothing but the water that holds him. Arthur steps back, moves back, holds back.
"We can't blame ourselves anymore. We can only move on."
Arthur looked back at the ships, the generals, the unfeeling masses of dead followers that had little care for the ground they were standing on. He shook his head, refusing to be part of them.
If Arthur looked at the boy once more, he'd choke on his thoughts and maybe revel in the emotions he has surpressed before letting the sun meet his brain, before letting the moon destroy his body and deliver him straight to the hells below.
"I don't want to move on. Is it so bad that I want to die here?" His smile belied his pain, and Arthur sunk into the water with him, impulse the only pulse left in his weak body.
Arthur watched as the remaining people searched for him. He felt a butterfly in his chest struggle, sending chills to his fingertips and eyelashes, to every part of him.
(I'm afraid, you're afraid
And we die and we live
And we're born again)
The sky is still pretty, Arthur whispered to himself when the boy stood up to clasp his hand and drag him out of the water. Arthur let his gun slip and watched it with glazed eyes, before growling and struggling from his captor's grip.
"There's a lavender field I want to sleep in, on top of this hill. Let's go. My names Alfred F Jones, by the way. When I sleep, I snore alot. Also, I love superman, war stories, pretty things like flowers- oh, my god, they are so pretty, come on." Alfred gave a grand laugh before continuing.
His eyes shone, brilliance awakening over his face as they ran ahead. Arthur rolled his eyes, but with the watery winds caressing him as he ran barefoot through the field of golden rye, he was almost excited to see the end of the world.
He lay by himself, the grasses licking at his wounds and the sun calling him forward. Alfred pouted next to him.
"What's your name?"
"Athur Kirkland. If we are to do these introductions, I guess I can say I'm a gentlemen first and foremost, I am a bit of a loner, I enjoy punk music and much as classical music, and literature." His eyes were farther away then the stars, Alfred thought.
Alfred felt a strong pull towards Arthur.
"Come on, tell me why your working with them. They're good for nothing bastards-" Alfred bit back his tongue with a gasp, and gave him a sheepish smile.
"I- I don't have a family. But people expect me to be in the military, so I did just that. Things like friends weren't real. Imagination was desecration and love, oh, my love was like the winds of the earth; everywhere but forgotten, untouched."
They stared at the water, lost in thought and space and time, the universe in front of their eyes; they didn't want to move an inch, and yet they wanted to move, to awaken and reach the stars, finally.
"You don't see it?" Alfred laughed animatedly, as Arthur playfully nudged him.
"Shut up." Arthur turned his attention to their nimble fingers, inches from touching and lifespans from leaving.
"I can see it everywhere. Here-" Alfred put a finger to Arthur's sunken chest.
"-Here and there." Alfred pressed his forehead to Arthur's abruptly, and looked straight into his leafy green eyes. Alfred was leaning forward, his palms on either side of Arthur's thighs.
Arthur licked his moist lips and Alfred pushed away his tears.
"Only idiots cry." Alfred said, giving him a small smile. Arthur glared and gave him a smaller smile, before sobbing.
Alfred let Arthur cry into his lap, as he watched the sky and water say goodbye to one another. Alfred let the air run through his golden hair, he let it float and tinge the soul of the city into something lighter, something otherwordly. He laughed and cried into Arthur's back for a while.
They stopped crying, they started to breathe normally again, and Arthur gave a shy smile to Alfred, his eyes watery and cheeks pink.
"I haven't seen you smile in a long time, England. It suits you." Alfred whispered into his spine, smelling the vanilla scent and feeding off his warmth.
"Your an optimistic idiot as usual, America. Even after things, you somehow find your way back to me. If you were going to leave me- you should have stayed far, far away."
"Did I leave?" Alfred asked him, thinking back to ages of history together.
"Yes, yes you did." The bitterness in his voice overtook his body as he quivered.
"No, I was here the whole time. I was right here, but you didn't notice-" Alfred left a palm on Arthur's chest, as he looked at him without emotion.
"-It's heart-rending and completely stupid, but you have been here the whole time too." Alfred continued, pulling Arthur's hand in his and then pressing it to his chest.
"And now we're here. We are sitting together like two humans, and we will die together, two dories drowning in a white ocean." Arthur sighed, a permanent glare on his face.
"We'll never die, silly." Alfred pressed his lips against Arthur's, as they waited for the world to end. They laughed into the kiss, deepening it and losing themselves in each other.
(The waves crashed and pulled, torn in it's entirety but always together, unable to seperate and trying to reach the reality that is the ground, but not quite reaching it.)
The world was so feeble, and with a single kiss, pressed skin and rush of glimmering tears, it collapsed around the two.
The day was theirs, everything was theirs.
notes; me being a poetic and romantic idiot with no coherency whatsoever. review if you have suggestions, thoughts, kind words, criticism. i can't handle criticism well, so be nice. erm, this is sloppy but what can i do.
OH. &you might be confused with how they didn't know eachother at the beginning, but in the end they called eachother by 'america' and 'england'; i wish i wrote more on that, but i didn't feel like it. basically, they started living like humans and didn't speak for a while, and this is their reunion. they introduced themselves as their human names as a joke, but they knew who they were.
okay, enough babble. thanks everyone?